Meds wrote:It's almost unthinkable, but could Vigneault's tried and true, stick to our gameplan and let it happen, approach is not working in a league where the officials favor the team that goes out to take it?

Or maybe his "let the leaders lead" philosophy won't work with a team who's used to being coached by Torts. Who's going to lead that team with Callahan out anyhow? Lundqvist, Staal, Richards?

I think NYR are simply not as good as pundits talk about. Like any new system or coach there is a learning curve so I'd still give AV time. He is a good coach and under him we had some of the best years in franchise history, not in spite of him. But like most systems and coaches there must be an evolution and that to me was his weakness. He could not evolve from season to season, series to series, game to game, period to period. His message was simply tired here.

But I must admit I listen to every presser Torts gives and I have been surprised at how calm he has been, how positive he has been, how defensive he is for his players not yet throwing anyone under the bus. Could it be this is a new Torts or is it more likely that all the media allowed us to see before was his blow ups thereby convincing us all he was a hot head who beat up on his players? You can sense everyone is waiting for it, almost with gleeful anticipation but to date his pressers have been refreshing. Early days I know but I is beginning to think there is more to the man than the media wanted us to see.

But back to AV, I appreciate what he brought to the Canucks and wish him well. But it was time to move on, a year too late IMHO, but better late than never, ask Nashville. Now there is a team with a very good coach but one I think could use a new voice.

Hockey Widow wrote:But I must admit I listen to every presser Torts gives and I have been surprised at how calm he has been, how positive he has been, how defensive he is for his players not yet throwing anyone under the bus. Could it be this is a new Torts or is it more likely that all the media allowed us to see before was his blow ups thereby convincing us all he was a hot head who beat up on his players? You can sense everyone is waiting for it, almost with gleeful anticipation but to date his pressers have been refreshing. Early days I know but I is beginning to think there is more to the man than the media wanted us to see.

I have seen several Torts pressers from days gone by in which he was VERY defensive of his players. If he felt the need to call someone out he would, but he NEVER let the media do it.

The guy is also nobody's fool. He knows this team needs to learn a new way of approaching their game. He also knows, despite his continual references to still figuring these guys out, that some of these guys are going to take more time to come around, and that some of them will simply not respond to the brow-beating, bus throwing, megalomaniac, style of coaching.

HW wrote:But back to AV, I appreciate what he brought to the Canucks and wish him well. But it was time to move on, a year too late IMHO, but better late than never, ask Nashville. Now there is a team with a very good coach but one I think could use a new voice.

I don't think Nashville would ever be a playoff team without Trotz. The guy does more with less than anyone. Nashville needs to figure out how to attract top players and keep high end skill (Weber and Rinne excepted) before they can go hiring a coach who wants his guys to play a system that puts pucks in the net more often.

Yeah, that stat needs to change if we're going to go anywhere post season; but at least we're winning the games we "should" win right now. The past couple of seasons the country club boys didn't show up for a lot of the "easier" games and only seemed interested when it was a contender they were facing. Still really early, but I like some of the character that seems to be (re)emerging with this team.